Candidate: The candidate is committed to a career in academic dentistry with a focus on patient-oriented research. This award will enable the candidate to achieve her career objectives, which are to gain additional experience and training in patient-oriented research and become an independent funded investigator in patient-oriented clinical research. Mentors: The primary mentor will be Dr. Anna Dongari-Bagtzoglou, who has extensive expertise in oral infection and inflammation. This combination of clinical and basic science expertise will ensure the comprehensive training program. Environment: A well-established research program in the proposed research area is in place. An NIH-funded GCRC provides supportive services for clinical research. Strong evidence of institutional commitment to the candidate's career development is also documented in the application. Career Development Plan: The didactic component will include course-work in areas relevant to patient-oriented research and nephrology. The clinical component will include experience in patient-oriented research projects. The laboratory component will include hands-on experience in inflammation laboratory techniques. Research Plan: We hypothesize that periodontal infections are highly prevalent in the CKD population and may affect the systemic inflammatory status of CKD patients. Moreover, we hypothesize that following periodontal treatment, the systemic inflammatory status of CKD patients will improve confirming the direct contribution of chronic periodontitis to the systemic inflammatory of CKD subjects. Specific Aim 1: a) to compare the prevalence of periodontal infection between CKD patients and non-CKD population and b) to explore the association between the presence of periodontal infection and the uremic status of CKD patients. Specific Aim 2: a) to assess the levels of the systemic inflammatory markers, IL-6 and CRP in the presence or absence of periodontal infection in CKD populations, and b): to compare the serum EL-6 and CRP levels at baseline and 2 months after periodontal treatment. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The study will compare the prevalence of gum disease between renal and non-renal populations. Given the fact that the higher the levels of inflammatory markers in the circulation, the higher the risk for heart disease, the study will assess the effect of gum infection on the overall inflammatory status of renal subjects. Also, the study will assess the effect of gum treatment on the systemic inflammatory status of renal patients.